Open source software has proven to have many benefits for
enterprises as well as developers; however, they also pose significant risks as
they are prone to a number of open source vulnerabilities. These are
particularly related to application security.
A number of developer teams rely largely on open source
software to quicken the delivery of digital innovation. Traditional, as well as
agile development processes and workflows often make use of pre-built and
reusable open source software components.
However, the problem lies in the fact that most
open sourcesoftware is often not subject to the same level of checks as compared to
software that is custom built. Most of the development work is crowd-sourced to
a large community of developers who often have little understanding of the
security concerns that may arise based on the organization’s use of the
software.
Use Relevant Tools to Find Vulnerabilities in OSS
Listed below are some of the popular tools and their USPs
that might help you manage vulnerability in open source software.
Node Security Project (NSP)
The NSP is known largely for its work on tracking security
of Node modules and NPM dependencies. The project offers tools that scan and
finds vulnerabilities using some public vulnerability databases like NIST
National Vulnerability Database as well as its own, inbuilt database. The
project was recently acquired by npm and integrated into the latest version of
npm in the form of npm audit. It is a script to check whether any public
vulnerability has been found in your packages and node modules.
npm audit automatically checks for issues in your for
direct dependencies, bundle dependencies and development dependencies. When you
install a new package or update an existing one, it shows a brief summary of
the issues found in your local dependencies. You can also use the tool to
generate security reports for JavaScript projects.
